Enemy Upgrades: Randomizer Antithesis [Alpha test 01]

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Roasterock
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Enemy Upgrades: Randomizer Antithesis [Alpha test 01]

Post by Roasterock »


  • Do you enjoy enemy randomizers, but get tired of getting destroyed in bad spots due to poor RNG?
  • Has strategy based on spawns alone become dull?
  • Are you looking to put the power back in your hands?


Enemy Upgrades is a gameplay mod where the main focus is replacing the enemies with ones that are susceptible to upgrade items.
These items can be used to morph the vanilla enemies into stronger versions of themselves, as explained by this diagram.







The incentive to have something that isn't vanilla enemies exist is that all regular health and armor items (Health Bonuses, Green Armor, etc.) along with most ammo has been removed, and replaced with these upgrade items. The only way to recover the reserves is to use the ones dropped from the newly upgraded enemies. Gimmick powerups (Berserk, Partial Invisibility) still remain, due to necessity, but everything else is free game. Balancing issues will be fixed as time progresses.



Other Features:
  • Hitscan has been removed
  • Weapons have been changed to a more scrappy style
  • Revenant missiles are now 8d8, and God smiled once again


Not all variants for the current three items have been implemented yet, so if a monster doesn't react to being hit with an upgrade item, then it's most likely not compatible with it. The current batch of enemies is only the tip of the iceberg.






Happy hunting everyone.
(Requires GZDoom 3.?, tested in 3.4.1)

DOWNLOAD HERE
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will183
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Re: Enemy Upgrades: Randomizer Antithesis [Alpha test 01]

Post by will183 »

Pretty cool unique gameplay mod, it seems cool but actually making the weapons function differently then how they do by default would go a long way with making it better, playing with default weaponry gets boring after a while
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Valherran
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Re: Enemy Upgrades: Randomizer Antithesis [Alpha test 01]

Post by Valherran »

will183 wrote:Pretty cool unique gameplay mod, it seems cool but actually making the weapons function differently then how they do by default would go a long way with making it better, playing with default weaponry gets boring after a while
Seconded. I have played vanilla Doom to death to where I don't want to see the original weapons again. This would be fun as hell to mess with if it worked with other MODs such as Final Doomer, Highnoon Drifter, or even GunCaster.
Gorman Frebmane
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Re: Enemy Upgrades: Randomizer Antithesis [Alpha test 01]

Post by Gorman Frebmane »

Valherran wrote:
will183 wrote:Pretty cool unique gameplay mod, it seems cool but actually making the weapons function differently then how they do by default would go a long way with making it better, playing with default weaponry gets boring after a while
Seconded. I have played vanilla Doom to death to where I don't want to see the original weapons again. This would be fun as hell to mess with if it worked with other MODs such as Final Doomer, Highnoon Drifter, or even GunCaster.
It would be nice to wield the weapon the spidermastermind has when it gets upgraded with a techbox
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ate0ate
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Re: Enemy Upgrades: Randomizer Antithesis [Alpha test 01]

Post by ate0ate »

I don't have a whole lot of feedback yet, but I'll say I feel sorta mixed thus far. The idea is rather interesting, but I'm not sure how I feel about the whole enemy upgrade system being linked to inventory used items yet. I always find using items clunky and slow. Its fun changing an enemy here or there, but it really limits the variation in enemy encounters for me. Maybe a way of effecting groups of enemies would help? I don't know. The whole inventory item thing is a real turn off for me for now. The enemy variants themselves though all seem of the highest quality, though I would neither expect nor accept any less from the CF team;). I agree with the prior assessment of the weapon situation as stated by those above me here. Yet judging by the mod's theme and sprite changes (and that the mod is very clearly labeled an alpha) I assume that a weapon upgrade system is also planned. Ultimately I enjoy the mod, but I'm not sold on its fun factor yet. I thank you for your amazing work as always Sir Roasterock.
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dljosef
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Re: Enemy Upgrades: Randomizer Antithesis [Alpha test 01]

Post by dljosef »

Being able to upgrade your enemies sounds a lot of fun (even if the inventory thing's a little clunky as ate0ate said, which I can see being an issue), especially some of the tougher ones. (And no need to worry about the RNG thing, to boot.) Also, the lack of hitscan might make some maps that necessitate such to hit switches nearly impossible, but oh well...

Can't wait to see what else you can come up with.
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Enjay
 
 
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Re: Enemy Upgrades: Randomizer Antithesis [Alpha test 01]

Post by Enjay »

I like this. It makes enemy upgrades/randomisation more strategic than normal. Cool stuff.
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Roasterock
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Re: Enemy Upgrades: Randomizer Antithesis [Alpha test 01]

Post by Roasterock »

I appreciate the thoughts from everyone. Let me try and cover everything that's been discussed so far.

All of the weapons being in vanilla style is completely intentional, and I don't plan on changing that any time soon. That way, most strategy involving the upgrades is a necessity, as health and ammo have a better chance of being much more plentiful when played right.

That being said, there are plans to add more weapons from certain monsters, only obtainable through these upgrades, and while I feel the difficulty would get shaken, consider this open permission to send me weapon mod patches for different weapon sets so that I can display them here.
dljosef wrote:Also, the lack of hitscan might make some maps that necessitate such to hit switches nearly impossible, but oh well...
Bullets should be small enough to fit in almost any hitscan switch that exists. If you can find one that doesn't work, I'll consider an alternate way to hit them.

I do understand that ZDoom's inventory system is not the best way to access items, but this is unfortunately the best we have so far. ZScript menus are still over my head. My best recommendation would be to rebind some close keys. My personal setup is "MMB" or "Mouse3" or however your scroll wheel is labeled for "Use Item".

Otherwise, you can expect a somewhat continuous string of updates over the course of next year. Thank you for your time.
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dljosef
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Re: Enemy Upgrades: Randomizer Antithesis [Alpha test 01]

Post by dljosef »

As far as switches that require hitscan, there's definitely that forcefield thing in Epic 2's Map14, where projectiles can't pass to hit the switch near the start that lowers the field.

That's basically the one switch thing that comes to mind.
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Roasterock
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Re: Enemy Upgrades: Randomizer Antithesis [Alpha test 01]

Post by Roasterock »

dljosef wrote:As far as switches that require hitscan, there's definitely that forcefield thing in Epic 2's Map14, where projectiles can't pass to hit the switch near the start that lowers the field.

That's basically the one switch thing that comes to mind.
That's true then, I'll mess with some ways to have the best of both worlds.
Gideon020
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Re: Enemy Upgrades: Randomizer Antithesis [Alpha test 01]

Post by Gideon020 »

I like the new sprites, though it was a bit of a strange thing to see the vanilla BFG9k and Chainsaw there. Hopefully you find a good replacement sprite for them. Sounds were also good for the super-shotgun and chaingun.

Might I suggest having having the most basic 'powerup' being unlimited and deployed by using something like the User 1 key so that the player can always at least have access to the most basic upgrade to the hordes?
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Roasterock
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Re: Enemy Upgrades: Randomizer Antithesis [Alpha test 01]

Post by Roasterock »

Gideon020 wrote:I like the new sprites, though it was a bit of a strange thing to see the vanilla BFG9k and Chainsaw there. Hopefully you find a good replacement sprite for them. Sounds were also good for the super-shotgun and chaingun.

Might I suggest having having the most basic 'powerup' being unlimited and deployed by using something like the User 1 key so that the player can always at least have access to the most basic upgrade to the hordes?
The chainsaw was never a high priority in mind, and I honestly couldn't find anything that was better than the classic BFG 9000, so it might just stay. As for the items, those are meant to provide some tact as to how and when the should be used, and puts more weight into their consumption. I do plan to make them more common by having enemies drop them more often, so if they're running dry on you, then that will be fixed in the coming update.
Gideon020
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Re: Enemy Upgrades: Randomizer Antithesis [Alpha test 01]

Post by Gideon020 »

Roasterock wrote:
Gideon020 wrote:I like the new sprites, though it was a bit of a strange thing to see the vanilla BFG9k and Chainsaw there. Hopefully you find a good replacement sprite for them. Sounds were also good for the super-shotgun and chaingun.

Might I suggest having having the most basic 'powerup' being unlimited and deployed by using something like the User 1 key so that the player can always at least have access to the most basic upgrade to the hordes?
The chainsaw was never a high priority in mind, and I honestly couldn't find anything that was better than the classic BFG 9000, so it might just stay. As for the items, those are meant to provide some tact as to how and when the should be used, and puts more weight into their consumption. I do plan to make them more common by having enemies drop them more often, so if they're running dry on you, then that will be fixed in the coming update.
If you're open to suggestions, one of Xaser's level-integrated weaponsets has a gun called the Impact Driver that's a BFG replacement, it's got the aesthetics to match the rest of the weapons in the mod. I think the levelset in question is Dead.Air but otherwise it's no big deal.
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dawnbreez
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Re: Enemy Upgrades: Randomizer Antithesis [Alpha test 01]

Post by dawnbreez »

The only thing I would change is the method of upgrading enemies. Right now it's kind of hard to upgrade a specific enemy, especially mid firefight. What I would do is allow the player to use an item *between* fights that changes the level of nearby enemies or even *all* enemies.
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ate0ate
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Re: Enemy Upgrades: Randomizer Antithesis [Alpha test 01]

Post by ate0ate »

dawnbreez wrote:The only thing I would change is the method of upgrading enemies. Right now it's kind of hard to upgrade a specific enemy, especially mid firefight. What I would do is allow the player to use an item *between* fights that changes the level of nearby enemies or even *all* enemies.
Yeah, I have also been trying to think of a better method than the one that is currently implemented and this is about what I've come up with as well. The inventory system just feels too fundamentally flawed to be viable, at least for me personally. Especially on harder wads, slaughter wads, or anything quicker than medium-paced. I find myself fighting vanilla enemies more often than not on harder wads or later levels. I sometimes resort to sort of mashing the upgrades at times in hectic situations but that just feels no more strategic, and only marginally more accurate, than a regular randomizer at that point. I really like the idea of choosing what I'm fighting, but I can't get this system to work as is. For me its the only thing holding the mod back. I am also willing to accept the possibility that I just suck and the system is solid lol.

Unfortunately, as Roasterock has said, I don't really know what a good alternative would be, short of some sort of fancy z-script quick-inventory-menu kung-fu or hotkeys. Hotkeys work alright for me, but things still are very imprecise and the variety of upgrades, which are the mods strength, become a weakness if binding each upgrade separately. Doesn't really solve the slaughterwad issue either. I'm stumped. I would invoke the git gud meme as the only viable solution to my woes, but I fear I've plateaued. :(
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